The number of Chinese netizens reached 123 million as of June
30, 2006. This is a 19.4 percent rise compared with the same period
last year, according to report released on Wednesday by the China
Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC).
The report states that China saw an increase of 12 million
netizens in the first half of 2006 -- 1.5 times up on the increase
for the second half of 2005. About 77 million netizens connect to
the Internet by broadband. This is up 24 million -- 45.3 percent --
compared with the same period last year. The international
bandwidth of China's Internet has hit 214,175 megabytes -- a 159.2
percent rise compared with same period last year.
The report includes for the first time statistical analysis of
young citizens. Among 200 million primary and middle school
students, 30 million, or 15.4 percent, have Internet access. The
percentage zooms upwards to over 50 percent among high school
students.
The report shows that on average netizens use the Internet 16.4
hours per week which is a new high and even longer than figures for
some Internet developed countries.
The number of computers connected to Internet by broadband has
reached 28.15 million. And various applications of the CN domain
name have been further developed; the application of the Blog CN
and individualized mailboxes, in particular, have brought a further
increase of websites with separate domain names.
The report says the number of websites in China has reached
788,400 of which 90,000 were added in the first half of 2006.
According to an online survey conducted by CNNIC, about 15
million netizens use online education tools very often, 25 million
often surf the Internet for job services and those who use blog and
online shopping services have reached 28 million and 30 million
respectively. Compared with the same period last year there's been
a 50 percent rise in netizens who always shop online.
The report says that the Internet in China has developed
quickly, but compared with developed countries it still had a long
way to go to improve Internet coverage and solve the problems in
services between urban and rural areas.
This is the 18th statistical report on China's Internet
development released by CNNIC.
(China.org.cn by Zhang Yunxing, July 20, 2006)